title: Prospect for characterizing interacting soft colloidal structures using spin-echo small angle neutron scattering.
abstract: Spin-echo small angle neutron scattering (SESANS) provides a new experimental tool for structural investigation. Due to the action of spin-echo encoding, SESANS measures a spatial correlation function in real space, as opposed to the structure factor S(Q), I(Q), in momentum (Q) space measured by conventional small angle neutron scattering. To establish the usefulness of SESANS in structural characterization, particularly for interacting colloidal suspensions, we have previously conducted a theoretical study of the SESANS correlation functions for model systems consisting of particles with uniform density profiles [X. Li, C.-Y. Shew, Y. Liu, R. Pynn, E. Liu, K. W. Herwig, G. S. Smith, J. L. Robertson, and W.-R. Chen J. Chem. Phys. 132, 174509 (2010)]. Within the same framework, we explore in the present paper the prospect of using SESANS to investigate the structural characteristics of colloidal systems consisting of particles with nonuniform intraparticle mass distribution. As an example, a Gaussian model of interacting soft colloids is used to investigate the manifestation of structural softness in a SESANS measurement. The exploration shows a characteristically different SESANS correlation function for interacting soft colloids, in comparison to that of a uniform hard sphere system. The difference arises from the Abel transform imbedded in the mathematical formalism bridging the SESANS spectra and the spatial autocorrelation function.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical, Aerospace & Nuclear Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York 12180, USA.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Chwen-Yang
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Shew
authors.forename: Yun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Roger
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pynn
authors.forename: Emily
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Kenneth W
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Herwig
authors.forename: Gregory S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: J Lee
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Robertson
authors.forename: Wei-Ren
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D003102:Colloids / Q000737:chemistry*; D015394:Molecular Structure; D033363:Neutron Diffraction; D053838:Scattering, Small Angle
chemical_list: D003102:Colloids